


Welcome to the Future

by ReptileRuler



Series: PRaZ FebuWhump [18]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Angst, Exile, Gen, Other, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, could be romantic or platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:26:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29556309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReptileRuler/pseuds/ReptileRuler
Summary: The aftermath of the Florpus, and their newfound exile.Febuwhump 2021 DAY 19: ALT 7: time travel
Relationships: Almighty Tallest Purple & Almighty Tallest Red, Almighty Tallest Purple/Almighty Tallest Red
Series: PRaZ FebuWhump [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2137614
Kudos: 15
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	Welcome to the Future

**Author's Note:**

> *uses the time travel prompt to develop au a bit further* huehuehue
> 
> Also, I wanted to have a slightly more distant narrator than what I'm usually writing, but I didn't' want this to be in either just Red's or Pur's POV. Which felt a bit weird to write. I hope it's still good ;w;

Screaming. Agony. The molecules of one's body being rearranged over, and over, and over again as realities were torn apart and merged together all around you. No chance to form any sort of coherent thought, or to gather your wits. Florpus holes are deadly. For all intents and purposes, if you find yourself in one, you may as well accept your confusing, agonizing death. 

Nothing makes sense inside the Florpus hole, and yet, looking back at it (along with the corrupted record of several crew-members’ PAKs and the Massive’s computer files), Purple concluded that they must have spent roughly one week inside of it. One week of insanity and suffering.

“Well”, Red mumbled, “welcome to the future, I guess.”

Purple let out a violent huff of air. “Great”, he spat.

The Massive was quiet, the once proud mother-ship of the Irken armada seemingly missing a piece of herself. Like a parking lot at midnight, one could not help but feel slightly put off by the emptiness, crushing at them from every angle. The crew, which had taken the natural course of action and rejoined the empire, would have always made some sort of noise. Neither Tallest had really noticed before. But in the absence of a bustling, muttering, chirping staff aboard, the echoing groans of metal and bangs of machinery felt all the more deafening. Tons upon tons of carefully constructed metal drifting through the void. It was quiet, but in the loudest way possible.

“I’m getting out of this”, Purple said and promptly unclasped the chest piece of his Tallest uniform.

“Really?”

“It’s not like we need it anymore.”

One week in the Florpus. That apparently translated into a hundred years outside of it. For a full century, the universe had gone on without them, and hadn’t left space for them to fit in at their return. 

At least they got to keep their (outdated, oversized, unaffordable) ship. 

Behind him, Red muttered something, and then the sound of armor being removed, echoing Purple’s own actions. The garments were dumped on the floor, where no servant drone would come to pick them up. But also, no servant drone would walk by to see the (previous) Tallest in nothing but underwear.

“There’s gotta be something else to wear on this old thing”, Purple muttered.

Together they dug through abandoned spare uniforms for something their size. Skirts meant to reach an Irken’s ankles still barely covered their knees, but at least their waists were slender enough that nothing felt too tight. Still donned in standard issue clothing belonging to the Irken empire, but at least they wore it mismatched and at least it wasn’t  _ that old uniform.  _

Purple marched along the corridors. It was possibly the first time either of them actually set foot and walked on the floors of the ship, but hoverbelts were only meant for the Tallest. It wouldn’t be right. 

Behind him Red’s footsteps echoed his own. They walked together in silence, perhaps because they were still processing. A week ago they had been on top of the hierarchy, and now they were here. In the future, with nothing. The memory of the Florpus still a fresh, bleeding wound, and both of them lacking the vocabulary to discuss the still lingering trauma.

Perhaps they just had nothing to say to each other anymore.

The aimless walk came to a halt in front of a gate. On the other side was the main deck, where they’d spent so much time in the past. Joking, laughing, leading, throwing people out of airlocks…

\- Screaming, crying, suffering while reality was being torn apart around them -

“I can’t go in there”, Purple concluded. 

“What?” Red tilted his head to the side. They had all of the ship to themselves, and still found themselves in front of the main area, naturally, since that was where most of their time would be spent usually. “What do you mean, can’t go in? We have clearance, right?” a rhetorical question - of course they had clearance. 

“No. I mean-” Purple looked around, “I just  _ can’t.”  _ He hugged himself.

The Massive continued its eery, machinery-filled silence. Red opened his mouth, frowned, and closed it again. 

“Okay,” he said finally. He turned to the door and opened it with a simple command from his PAK. “Stay out here, then.”

“Wai-”

And Red disappeared into the deck. Purple caught a glance of space through the giant windows and he shivered. It was as though the Florpus could return any second, ready to swallow them once again, even though that wasn’t possible. Just a silly fear. Purple looked away and leaned against the wall. 

Meanwhile, Red walked along the empty rows of seats and control panels. This room didn’t allow for as much ambient ship noise, and it was as though the room ate up the sound of his breathing, his footsteps against the cold floor. A screen flickered, showing that the Computer was offline, and that Autopilot had failed to find a course. He didn’t bother to set one.

The view outside was the same as it had always been, and possibly always would be. The universe didn’t care that two Irkens had lost a hundred years of existence, and along with it… everything they’d ever had before that.

Red returned to the corridor to find his previous co-ruler on the floor with his head between his drawn-up knees.

“Hey…” he said and poked at Purple with his toe. Purple curled up tighter.

A sigh escaped him, about as heavy as all of space, and he slid down the wall to join Purple on the floor. After a minute of silence, Purple tilted, leaning against him. 

“What are we gonna do?” he asked. A fair question, and something he had asked Red more than once in their long, shared past. 

But this time, it caused Red to freeze up. 

The last time he’d been in control, he had ordered an entire fleet of good Irkens into a Florpus hole. He had cursed them all to suffer unimaginable agony, and then to skip into an unfamiliar future.  _ He’d  _ done that.

“Don’t- don’t ask me that- I-”

“What?” Purple looked up. 

“I dunno, I just can’t- can’t say right now.”

They both looked away. Around them, the Massive was loud with its silence. Sounds that would eventually become the new normal.

“Well. I can’t be close to that room. You can’t say what to do”, Purple huffed, “wanna go to our quarters?”

Red relaxed.

“Yeah.”

**Author's Note:**

> *slaps top of Tallest* These guys can fit so much trauma in them!


End file.
